protocol for using hot plate

I have a ISRA heat shabbat hot plate with hebrew instructions that I do not fully understand. can anyone who uses a hot plate, especially that hot plate, kindly instruct me as to how to use it for shabbos.

1. does food need to go on hot/warm or will it heat up on its own?
2. is food at risk of drying out?
2. do i have to worry about food burning? must i move it around every couple of minutes...?
3. what materials can be placed on the ceramic surface?
tin foil? foil pans? pyrex? pots?

As I have recommended in the post about the fire in Flatbush -I don't recommend this item for Shabbos, due to a possible fire hazard. Use a stove with a blech (probably safe), an oven on keep warm or a crock pot. Use hot plates only during the week, like if you are making a simcha, not on Shabbos. The company can't even be sued in this country for damages (technically they can, but you won't get any money).

I dont know what brand mine is, however if its like mine. It gets pretty hot but i usually warm up the food before putting it on for Fri night and if I'm gonna warm something for shabbos day it'll get hot if I put it on early enough (2 hrs more or less). I also have put glass pyrexs, pots, aluminum pans and ceramic oven dshes.

If it's the classic israeli hot plate (chanan? goldline?) without a heat setting, it gets real hot, and can easily dry things out and burn them. Think 200F. Pyrex probably isn't a good idea. You can basically cook on it.

This review is from: Shabbat Hot Plate - Large
This hotplate is GREAT! The entire surface is one temperature. It heats up food very nicely. You can place a pot with soup on the hot plate, and within 1 - 1.5 hours the soup will be piping hot. This is a great addition to any kitchen, and comes in quite handy for entertaining. It measures ... Front to back: 16 3/4"; Left to right: 23 1/4" (including the handles); The legs are 1 1/8" Tall, so there is a nice clearance from the counter. However, to be safe, I placed tile under the one that we purchased to protect the countertop.http://www.amazon.com/ISRA-HEAT-IS701HP-Shabbat-Plate/product-reviews/B000OKR5I6/ref=dp_db_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

More fires have arisen from a blech than from a hotplate. Let's rather stop using a blech since its so dangerous. More people die in bed than from driving race cars. Let's all sleep in race cars. Thousands of families use hotplates on shabbos. You must be careful just like any type of potentially dangerous object with very useful purposes.

mybat - "It gets pretty hot...and if I'm gonna warm something for shabbos day it'll get hot if I put it on early enough (2 hrs more or less)."

Beware. It seems from the descriptions above that the entire surface of this hot plate has the din of a blech which is “on the fire directly”.
If you are putting food to warm up after the start of Shabbos, you would need to be familiar with the halachos pertaining to "neereh c'mavashel" and other halachos of warming food, such as: warming food which is "dry"; “moist"; "already cooked"; "already baked"; and not putting the food directly on the blech or totally wrapped. In other words: Speak to your Rav.

The hotplate is not considered to be a kadeira type of heat source. It's a real fire covered with a blech. Since the whole surface is the same hot temperature, you can't put anything on it on shabbos to warm. It's not like a regular blech on a stove range where the fire is only in an area and the outer edges are not directly fire heat.

A few months ago I started getting a leak in my "water blech" (kedaira al gabai kedairah) and instead of replacing it I got a "plata" (Israeli electric hot plate).
I place right on top of my stove top burners, so there is nothing under it that can burn. It does get very (evenly) hot.
According to the Rav I spoke to in Israel if one wants to place (only dry) food on this plata on Shabbas morning, to warm for lunch, one can do so IF you have an upside pan or tray on the plata, and put your food on top of that.
Personally, I put my old (leaky) water blech (without any water of course) on top of the plata before Shabbas (it covers the whole surface of the plata) and place my food on top of that...
This solves TWO problems -
1) My food still gets plenty hot, but does not burn or get dried out, and
2) I can put (dry) food on it Shabbas morning.

BTW... Very few frum Israelis use our American style blech, MOST frum Israelis use a hot plate, and this is the accepted way of doing so.

theprof1 -"More fires have arisen from a blech than from a hotplate"; I like people who make up statistics for their own beliefs. If you have even one news article about blech fire dangers please post. I'm not talking about CO buildup. And then you make a joke about racing cars. Your interpretation of statistics is to say "I'm going to do whatever I want, no matter how dangerous it is".

I don't know statistics, but I once had a scary experience with the blech on the stove. The fire turned out and the stove was releasing gas in the middle of the night, the onle reason why I realized was because I sent my husband to the kitchen for something because I wasn't feeling well. Min hashamayim he went and realized that the fire was off and it smelled like gas.
So personally I really prefer the electric blech.

-R' Moshe holds that a hotplate without any knobs has a din of kli al gabey kli, hence one could put food on it on shabbos without worrying about nirah k'mavashel. Of course, regular bishul would apply (fully cooked, no liquid). Most Poskim disagree with R' Moshe, and require regular kli al gabey kli.

-However, many Poskim - R' Shlomo Zalman amoung them, say that such a hotplate does not have a din of kli al gabey kli, but does have a din of garuf v'katum. Hence, once could leave food on it - before shabbos - directly on the hotplate ( but not put it on the hotplate on shabbos itself) and return it on shabbos. This also is an issue of great debate.

-The water hotplate thingy attempts to replicate kli al gabey kli by saying that you are cooking the water within, hence putting something on the blech is kli al gabey kli. R' Elyashiv rejects this on the premise that kli al gabey kli is only when you actually plan on eating the first dish. I believe that R' Yisrael Belsky rejects this blech as well, but I am not sure. Of course, it's not worse then any other blech, if you put another kli on it, you could put a kli. Presumably poskim permit it's usage, or else it wouldn't sell. But who knows.

Mybat- Your story has nothing to do with a blech. Anytime a pilot or a flame goes out, gas will keep coming. I don't know about in Mexico, but here in the US they add something to the gas. The gas coming into your house is really odorless, but the company puts something in it for this reason. So when you smell gas, you are really smelling the additive.

MOQ
I am not sure if Rav Moshe would hold the same on today's hotplates as they are much hotter than the ones in his time. Today's hot plates get up to 200 degrees F, wheras the ones 10 15 years ago did not get that hot.
LKNOLLER

HaRav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik has ruled that one may take cold dry food which is fully cooked out of the refrigerator and reheat it on the blech on Shabbos, provided that this food was on the blech as Shabbos began and was first removed on Shabbos. In this case, returning the food to the blech (Hachzorah) is simply a continuation of the activity known as Shehiyah, that is, placing food on the fire before Shabbos and leaving it there until needed on Shabbos, which is permissible if there is a blech (See Shulchan Aruch Ibid. Sif 1). Regarding the other three conditions cited above, the aforementioned Ramo (Ibid.) quotes from the Ran that the last two, namely still having the pot in one's hand and having the intent to return it, are not required when the food is removed from the blech on Shabbos and is to be returned on Shabbos. It appears that the Vilna Gaon (Biur HaGra to Sif 5 Ibid. s.v. U'Bilvad) as explained by the Mishnah Berurah in the Biur Halacha (Ibid. s.v. U'Bilvad), holds that in such a case, even the other condition, that the food must still be hot, is also not required if it's a dry cooked food. HaRav Soloveitchik extends this view to allow reheating on the blech a fully cooked solid food even if it has been completely cooled off in the refrigerator, because this is still just a continuation of the original Shehiyah. It is noteworthy that Rav Ovadyah Yosef (Sheilos U'Teshuvos Yechaveh Da'as Chelek 2 Siman 45) allows this as well, but for a completely different reason.